AKTO 6

Artist: Béatrice André

Country: France

Project Title: Percevez (Plus).

Project Description: The installation called Percevez (plus) will represent her at AKTO Festival. When the notion of work gets lost, everyday life doesn't have barriers anymore and it isn't regulated by any timetable. It opens one's eyes and their view of details and surroundings… Percevez (plus) is actually images with no intention of becoming reality or unique and followed by recreated universes, when the author's way of life is guided only by curiosity. Concerts, borders, voting. Or doing nothing.

Bio: Béatrice André was born in France, Bretagne. She is a traveller, a journalist, a photographer. Practises sound recording. Studied journalism and languages. Exhibited in Grenoble, France and Lisbon, Portugal.

Artist: Igor Toshevski

Country: Macedonia

Project Title: Cruising

Project Description: Four friends decide to spend yet another night cruising around town. As the car goes deeper into the night, the four friends discover they live in a neurotic society most likely on the edge of a collapse. They try to explicate their views on the crumbling remains of a pseudo-democratic society going rotten by the minute. This only brings them to an even more uncomfortable conclusion: their own relationships are as much corrupt and deteriorating as the environment they criticize.

Bio: Igor Toshevski graduated printmaking from the Fine Arts Academy in Helsinki, Finland in 1988. In the 80s he was a part of several artist groups, such as Tush Laboratorija, U.S.T.A and ZERO collective (1985 – 1990). Out of over 50 solo and group exhibitions, we'll name just a few exceptional ones: Dossier (1996), Perfect balance (2000), Process (2004) and Territories (2004). Since the 1990s his work takes a more specific critical approach to social and political issues. Igor Toshevski is coming back to AKTO 6 with his video installation called Cruising.

Artist: Artists Group

Country: Macedonia

Project title: ANP

Project Description: It closes with documenting the sojourn (photographs, video, audio) and events at the selected location. This manifestation is biennial and the group is consisted of up to ten artists.

Bio: Founders of ANP are: Spase Perovski, Stanko Pavleski, Nebojsa Vilic and Tome Adzievski. ANP is actually a socialization and artistic function in nature – conceptualized Art Anchor / (Yard/Meadow) / Art Dairy / up to Authorial Apparition. Besides the fine arts artists and art historians, authors from different arts and areas in close relations to fine arts also participate in this project.

Artist: Kanal 103

Country: Macedonia

Project Title: Free for 20 years now

Project Description: The "20 godini slobodni"/"Free for 20 years now" exhibition sublimates the 20 years long history of the cult radio station from Skopje, Kanal 103, throughout selected photographs, documents, artefacts and objects replenished with audio-video installation.

Bio: Team of curators> Igor Toshevski, Filip Jovanovski, David Angelevski, Gorgi Janevski.

Artist: Jasna Dimitrovska, Dragana Zarevska

Country: Macedonia

Project Title: Labor party, the Lele Method, Simulakredenec/Plakrum

Project Description: Labor party is literally a party inspired by labor, and exclusively dedicated to this year’s AKTO’s general topic. During the festival, the traffic of guests coming in and out at the opening, is being recorded with a video camera, and after the festival the video signal is being converted in a mechanical, useful one. This is to be proved that parties are actually a kind of labor.

"Lele" is one of the most frequently used words in Macedonia. Devoid of meaning, the word’s only function is emphasizing a moment of shock, surprise, wondering, or similar. People usually use it when they do not understand how, and why something occurred, and immediately after it is being said out loud, lele helps people criticize any phenomenon constructively, and with a high dose of expertise. The experience is ending where language begins. Kids experience the real experience up until they start articulating and verbalizing things up. Giorgio Agamben says that we, modern humans, can no longer access experience. The Lele Method is an attempt to get some experience instantly and effectively. The existence of this scientific method is only symbolical, because you could certainly do without it. Try it. If you do not succeed, your libido-less academism automatically returns to you within minutes.

Simulakredenec (often reffered to as plakrum as well), is a steady evidence of Jean Baudrillard’ presence on Macedonian territory since the ancient times. This object, in some sort of natural symbiosis with the mentality, is helping the locals live, work, and simulate life, without even having the need to get out of the closet.

*Kredenec and plakar are synonims for closet in the Macedonian language

Artist: Neda Firfova

Country: Macedonia

Project Title: Jam

Project Description: Firfova's Jam series are a result of a partial intervention in the daily office photocopying activities aswell as the routine fixing of photocopy machines. The framed paper objexts are ready mades, clasified according to the production process they belong to. Jam explores the utipian 1960s ideas of the paperless office and the paperless society, subsequential to the invention of the first computers and preceeding the invention of the first Xerox photocopy machine.

Bio: Neda Firfova (b.1981, Skopje, MK) is an artist, graphic designer and a design researcher. She graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Skopje in 2005 and pursued her MFA at the Graphic Design Department of Tama Art University in Tokyo, Japan. In 2009 she started her design research work at the Jan van Eyck Academie in Maacrticht, The Netherlands. Neda Firfova`s work and research is embedded in graphic design logic and conceptual processes while it activates itself within and beyond the traditional graphic design mediums. Suggesting more open approaches to graphic design, her work invites the integration of interventions by audiences and collaborators, while sometimes supporting reverse editorial processes. These experiments contribute to the questioning of the authority that graphic designers are educated to deliver exclusively on paper.

Artist: Anonymous

Country: Czech Republic

Project Title: Plíživý Proces/Podmukli Proces

Project Description: Podmukli Proces is an interdisciplinary project that originated in June, 2011 during a Prague – Skopje trip. At the Prague airport, on 27 June, 2011, a folder with "Plíživý Proces" writing was found. The author was invited to present himself at AKTO 6. He insisted on staying anonymous, but sent a short bio that said: "Grandson of the original owner of the Slavija restaurant, near Narodni Dvladlo". "He is lazy and very handsome", his wife says.

Artist: Georgi Janevski

Country: Macedonia

Project Title: If Nobody's Playing

Project Description: The "If nobody's playing documentary" follows very closely the beginnings of Bernays Propaganda, a band from Skopje, through the everyday challenge to live for the music and is a display of the underground history of the underground rock 'n roll scene in Skopje and its authentic urban sensibility and ever-flowing creative energy.

Screenplay and Direction: Gorgi Janevski

Camera: Brand Ferro

Production: Stotrojka

IF NOBODY'S PLAYING is an independent production of STOTROJKA, in collaboration with PETRA PAN FILM, HOUSE 57 and 3X.

Artist: Marijana Vukic

Country: Croatia

Project Title: £ib€rta$

Project Description: "Łib€rta$" Is a remake of the flague of the Dubrovnik Republic, in which the word liberty is contaminated with the simbols of the worlds main courencies, The modfication makes us reflect the process of loss of freedom in change of material gain, a process heavelly prsent in the countries in transitioan from counist to capitalis system like Croatia., the Balcans, of east Europe in general

Bio: Mariana Vukic is born in Dubrovnik, Croatia, 1979, she studied at the Accaademy of fine arts in Venice, She exhibited at Bevilawua La Masa Foundation, Venice, Italy, Museum Madre, Naples, Italy, Galerija Prsten, Zagreb, Croatia, Atelierfrankfurt, Frankfurt, Germany

Artist: Mancassola Basilico

Country: Italy

Project Title: Roy Lee

Project Description: "I was a singer, a good one. I have known everybody in the music world of Italy, and inAmerica my records sold well. I played with Floyd Cramer, his was the best piano in all of Nashville and I would put my voice. Try to ask the music circles if they know who Roye Lee isand just listen to what they have to say!" - Roye Lee. We met Roy Lee in the streets of central Milan and we have listened to his voice singing and telling unbelievable stories. After 35 years he has returned on stage (teatro Out-Off , Milan), alone, with his emotions and his blues and country songs. The video is a fragment showing,through gazes, gestures and lyrics, a life to the extreme, an uncontrollable energy: this is the portrait of Roye Lee by Mancassola Basilico.

Bio: Mancassola Basilico are Barbara Ceriani Basilico and Alessandro Mancassola. They live and work in Milan. They began working together in 2005 during their specialization in Visual Arts at the Academy of Fine Arts of Brera (Milan). Among others, they exhibited at the Merz Foundation in Turin, Sandretto Re Rebaudengo Foundation in Turin, Bevilacqua La Masa Foundation in Venice, Careof in Milan, Neon in Bologna, 26cc in Rome, Grand Union in Birmingham, and at the National Art Gallery in Tirana.

Artist: Anja Puntari

Country: Finland

Project Title: XXX

Project Description: The video “American Idol – Daisy” is a portrait of i cry blured in side a universe of stars, colors and solitude In the spectacle of your 15 minutes of fame at whatever price, everybody has the same possibulity to interprate both the role of the hero and othe victime. The 15 minutes of Daisy finishesd before thay even started, remain just tears publicly shared to millions of viewes who reflect them self in this infinite mediocrity.

Bio: Anja Puntari is a young Finnish artist. Her work is focused on people and pictures and the relationship between the two. As an audio-visual artist who frequently bases the work on already existing material, she is interested in the structures of meaning that are constructed around the images (and sounds) and their relationship to the surrounding culture. A lot of her works originated because of this some sort of anthropological research, collections that contain the codes of the place that the workoriginates from. The polyhedric background of Anja Puntari often pushed her to deal with different ways of expression, such as performance, video, photography.

Anja Puntari started her research for her piece for AKTO 6 by reflecting on the keyword “xxx” that is often used for searching and downloading porn files on the internet. The result is a sequence of frames of female eyes shown in slow motion. The video stills are taken from porn films, which are classified under the genre named Gonzo. Gonzo is a technique used to reduce the space between the spectators and the actors, in which the camera operator or the director takes part in the action. Gonzo is also a way of making movies that is low-cost and adaptable for professional and non-professional actors. In the postproduction process, Anja Puntari highlights the feminine eyes and transforms the visual codes of pornography.

Artist: Gastòn Ramìrez Feltrìn

Country: Mexico

Project Title: Gotcha

Project Description: Recorded from a helicopter during an American mission in Iraq, this footage has been widely circulated on the net, yet is censored in the US for political reasons. Soldiers shoot from above, killing their defenseless enemies, one by one. With crude irony, the Super Mario music associates the scene to a video game- such is the weight with which Americans bring on their massacre. Just as in the preceding video, there is a reflection on violence, on the fact that it can be practiced with cynical detachment and that such dramatic and bloody events become entertainment for Internet users.

Bio: Gastòn Ramìrez Feltrìn was born on 3rd October 1972 in Tepic, Mexico. He graduated with a Bachelors Degree in Visual Arts from the Guadalajara University inMexico in 2001 and with a Masters Degree in Visual Arts at the Faculty of Design and Arts of IUAV University in Venice, Italy in 2004. He currently lives and works in Venice, Italy. Gastòn's interests are divided between two spheres. The first one could be defined as private, where he explores his condition of cultural hybrid and immigrant and how this condition influences his everyday behaviour, his way of relating to the world and his personal relationships, both with his surroundings and with his cultural background. In the second sphere, which could be defined as public, he tries to find the points of rupture between the images of the collective conscience and the perception of the individual, along with the relationship between collective and personal history. Furthermore, he explores the perceived relations between people of different societies and conditions. He is particularly interested in pop culture, both Mexican and international.

Artist: Rubén Gutierrez

Country: Mexico

Project Title: Alarma

Project Description: Ruben Guttierez brings one of his extraordinary paintings to AKTO 6. The images refer to a state of emergency, situations of social unrest or evidences of moments of great misfortune. The Alarma! stencil is made out after the logo of Alarma! a Mexican tabloid magazine that focuses largely on violent crime. The content of the magazine, while being dominated by gratuitous coverage of horrific murder scenes, is interspersed with advertisement for dating agencies, horoscopes, and sexy centerfolds. These juxtapositions are disconcerting, and yet somehow humanising. In this bizarre, sensationalised account of what are often argued to be the two greatest motivators – sex and death – they act as a reminder that despite all things, life goes on.

Bio: Since 1993 Rubén has shown his works and curatorial projects in Mexico, the USA, Spain, Cuba, Argentina, Ecuador, Perú, Puerto Rico, the Netherlands, France, Czech Republic,China, Japan, India and Iran. He is the founder of ObjectNotFound.org - an independent, non-profit space whose mission is to promote the knowledge and appreciation of contemporary art through research, production and exhibition of intertextual objects. He represented Mexico at numerous festivals and biennales, worked as a curator for projects like Bronx River Art Center (New York, USA), VAE10 Festival Internacional de Video /Arte Electrónica (Lima, Peru), Jawaharlal Nehru University (New Delhi, India) and many more. He is also a winner of numerous awards from contemporary arts festivals.

Artist: Progettozeropiu,

Country: Italy

Project Title: Mass vs Power

Project Description: The first prject of Progettozero(+) for AKTO 6 is a real soccer match, played on a parking lot in Bitola. Two real soccer teams called Mass and Power will play a match wearing special "Mass" and "Power" jerseys. Each player is supposed to wear a different definition of mass and power (sociological, physics, etc.). When Progettozero(+) curated this match in Croatia, Mass won, 2:1.

Bio: Progettozero(+) is a Venice-based artist group founded in 2001. They have questioned issue related to public, socio-political and relational modalities, operating with people, communities and other artists, through several different projects.

Artist: Progettozeropiu

Country: Italy

Project Title: Very Happy People

Project Description: Their project Very Happy People!, with which they are presenting themselves at AKTO Festival this year, is a video research project about well-being and happiness. It investigates the relation between well-being and happiness in the rich Italian region known as Nord Est. The video, in form of a documentary, presents the mixed interviews with intellectuals and experts with a symbolic narration. Through sounds and images, it draws a sort of “places of soul” talking about the man living in this territory.

Artist: Detext

Country: USA

Project Title: Selfportraite

Project Description: For this project, Detext created a series of t-shirts screen-printed with classified ads found in the back pages of newspapers and online dating websites. Interested in the coded language used to refer to sex, Detext’s t-shirts wrench the explicit language of the personal ads they use and posits it in a highly visible context. Subverting fashion’s modes of representing identity, these t-shirts make visible how the ruthless logic of capital pervades the intimate sphere, defining individuals purely by the sex acts they are willing to perform, sometimes at discount rates even. more info on > detext.es http://www.detext.es/DETEXTSelfportrait.html

Selfportrait,

Mistress daniela bdsm session spanking foot fetish facesitting uro whip strapon bike and gag horse clips for nipples no bdsm studio the slave has the right to come only through masturbation or foot 0733874512 honorarium 100 euro.

Bio: Detext is an artist collective formed by Valentin Duceac and Raúl Martínez working in New York and Berlin. Their work has been exhibited in various institutions and biennials in Europe and the United States, including MoMA/PS1’s Greater New York and Apexart in New York, the St. Etienne Biennial, the Milano Triennale, and the International Roaming Biennial in Belgrade, London and Tehran.

Artist: Detext

Country: USA

Project Title: Vi4gra [SPAM]

Project Description: A collaboration between DETEXT and electro-punk band Mendetz, SPAM delves specifically into the ideology and sexist rhetoric found in much of today’s commercial music. A crossover between William Burroughs cut-ups and a bastardized eurotrash dance floor hit, SPAM conspicuously reproduces the misogynist tropes and overstated masculinity profusely exhibited by many modern day troubadours. As its title indicates, every word in the song has been culled from junk emails received by the artist, in particular from unsolicited offers of Viagra, penile extensions and other chemical wonders to become “a real macho”. http://www.vimeo.com/detext

Artist: Nikola Uzunovski

Country: Serbia

Project Title: Love the Future

Project Description: “LOVE THE FUTURE”, is a banner, an advertisement, but not of an object, nor of a service, but instead of a time. A time for which all hope is lost. It brings back the idea of a better future, and the possibuility of involvment in a process of relisation of ones dreams and realityes.

Bio: Nikola Uzunovski is born Zemun, Belgrade, Serbia, 1979. In 2007 works as a interdisiciplinary artist, he exhibited in more then a hundred shows around the world. In 2005 participates at the 53°Biennale di Venezia, in the project Floating Sites, in 2007 wins the price Young European Artist Trieste Contemporanea where he start his project My Sunshine which he continues during the residence at Pollinaria, Abruzzi, 2008, and then develops it further in for Macedonian pavilion at the 53°Biennale di Venezia, (2009). Solo shows to be mentioned, Snow, and My sunshine at Federico Luger galley Milan. Major group group exhibitions, Greenwashing at Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin, Italy (2008), Green Platform, Fondazione Strozzi, Florence, Italy (2009), Spaceship Earth, Centre of Contemporary Art Znaki Czasu, Torun, Poland (2011).

Combining an aggressive conceptual language and intimate topics, Uzunovski provokes the spectatorand turns him into a necessary central character of his pieces. The observer’s experiences, wishes and memories become a fundamental material of his oeuvre.

Artist: Filip Jovanovski

Country: Macedonia

Project Title: Don't Stare so Romantically

Project Description: The exhibition is a spatial replica/reproduction of Delacroix’s Liberty leading the people referring to the definition of the ideal of freedom anew. On the one hand the idea to a produce a replica of this historic piece of art is an attempt to set and re-contextualize the meaning of art-making once again. On the other hand, it emphasizes the local qualities and the authentic aesthetics (we also have history of arts of our own, we also have freedom of our own). In other words, holograms should be made in Japan, while iron should be welded in Macedonia.This is not to be said ironically, on the contrary, it is to be said in terms of creating one’s own identity so that there is no pure idea, the idea has to emerge out of the material possibilities and the quality of the context. The question of experiencing and presenting the artistic form in certain context arises: how to discover the meanings of the existing context once again, but also to rediscover the context that has to be redefined as well? The exposition creates new context referring to Brecht’s ideal of freedom (Don’t stare so romantically! Drums in the night) to the ideal of freedom in the history of art i.e. Delacroix’ s Liberty leading the people and the ideal of freedom in the social context which is the audio quote of Robespierre’s Danton’s death in Stevo Zigon’s speech in front of the students in Belgrade. 1968. The project is a fragment/memory of experiencing the ideal of the freedom anew, in the current context. It deals with replaying history once again, imitating and referring to the symbol of revolution with our primitive devices thus bringing to one’s senses the urge and the possibility for such freedom to be experienced, to liberate ourselves in terms of form and content from the meaning of the context and to create our own tools in construction of the personal identity. Freedom is as it is, not the way we think it is!

Don’t stare so romantically!

Bio: Filip Jovanovski (b. 1979, Bitola, Macedonia) visual artist .He studied at the Faculty of architecture in Skopje. With his work, he explores the border in–between different media and their interdisciplinary connection, design, theater, video, film, installations. Considering the space as the essential element that defines architecture in its all different ways of perception, in his artworks he deals with transformation of that category in different ways of sensation. He took part in several theatre festivals, video festivals and film festivals in Europe, Japan, USA, Serbia, Slovenia and Croatia. He organized and curated several group exhibitions within Akto Festival for Contemporary Arts ( 2006-2009), creative campaigns (AVA DDB – advertising agency Assistant of the creative director 2008/2009), he made over 20 stage designs,10 video works, short films, documentaries and several group and solo exhibitions as the biennale of young artists at the Museum of Contemporary Arts in skopje, topic: identities and the exhibition book- artwork at the museum “25th May” in Belgrade in 2009. Seafair (Skopje electronic art Fair) 2010, Museum of Contemporary Arts Skopje october 2010, "Perforacije" Festival, Zagreb october 2010 , decision / object installation , centre for culture bitola, october 2007 , decision of the dice object installation, 4tuned Cities Festival, Skopje , "Mala stanica" December 2010. 2008-2010 he has worked as freelancer at the European Faculty in Skopje at the department for Art and Design subjects: visual communications, design of books, poster design and packing and graphic design. He has been rewarded several times for scenography, design and video.

Artist: Walter Steinacher

Country: Austria

Project Title: Yugostalgia

Bio: Walter Steinacher was born in Salzburg, Austria. He studied with Gunther Damisch (Vienna), Ursula Huebner (Linz, Austria) and Andrej Daniel (Sofia, Bulgaria) and graduated in 2003. Currently living and working in Austria and Slovenia. Walter Steinacher started exhibiting and performing in 1997. Among his latest works is the release FCKU FSHN, punk-fashion (New York, Berlin, Vienna) in 2011. Also this year, he is bringing his extraordinary work called Yugostalgia to AKTO Festival for contemporary arts in Bitola after touring in New York and Ljubljana.

Project Description:Yugostalgia is a series of portraits of the former Yugoslav president Josip Broz Tito. It reflects upon the utopia of a socialist garden of Eden. The neoliberal economy creates the need for sweet memories and illusions in former Yugoslav countries. The opening of the series is a theatrical/performative social event, full of surprises...

Artist: Warren Neidich in collaboration with Faculty of Fine Arts (Skopje)

Country: USA

Project Title: In the mind's, I

Project Description: The performances actually are a kind of impromptu dialogues that are being performed as a shadow theatre. The participants, which previously chose their part of a curator or an artist, are acting out different improvised situations that occur in the landscape of the artistic scene during conceptualizing, arranging and materializing exhibitions.This collaborative performance project is brought to AKTO 6 by Suzana Milevska, Darko Aleksovski, Simona Manceva, Filip Rizov, Katerina Sokolova, Ivana Spiroska, Slobodanka Stevcevska.

Bio: Warren Neidich is an American artist and street philosopher living and working between shifted to ask how the history of art may be read as a product of the mutating conditions of culture which art production itself elaborates and how these ensuing changes, in the cultural landscape, sculpt the material and immaterial conditions of the Brain and Mind. His work has been exhibited internationally at such institutions as the Whitney Museum of American Art, PS 1 MOMA, LACMA, Museum Ludwig - Koln ICA – London, etc. He's been awarded with Vilem Flusser Theory Award 2010, The Fullbright Specialist Program and Macdowel Foundation Fellowship 2010. Warren Neidich in 2011 created the performance project called In the Mind's I in collaboration with Faculty of Fine Arts from Skopje as a part of the Fullbright program.

Artist: Atanas Botev

Country: Macedonia

Project Title: The artist 2 Coffees and Cigarettes

Project Description: An interactive performance where the artist invites the audiences to join him for a cup of coffee and chat, opening the possibility to inform themselves about everything they want to know about his work. This finally demystifies the gossip about art-elitism and closes the gap between the artist and the audience. At the same time, the project is also an ironic comment to the local current law that restricts cigarette smoking indoors. Thus, the performance takes place in an improvised room that symbolizes a closed space where smoking is banned by law.

Artist: Petra Kovacic

Country: Croatia

Project Title: Act(ing)

Project Description: Act(ing) is a theatrically artistic installation, from a gallery's point of view and an artistically theatrical performance, from a theatre's point of view. The performance deals with the issue of the relations to the artwork and working through a symbolic display of an artwork's creation. The author also raises the question of the artist's reputation and his (absurd) position in society.

Bio: Petra Kovacic is a young Croatian visual artist and performer. She studied plastic art at The Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb. She had or collaborated on more than 30 exhibitions, performances or workshops for contemporary art. Her performance “Act(ing)” was shown at the first festival Perforacije in 2009 and presented at the Perforations festival in La MaMa, New York in 2011. Now, this performance will find its place in AKTO Festival's official program.

Artist: Vlasta Delimar03

Country: Croatia

Project Title: Cycle: Erszebet bathory.

Bio: Vlasta Delimar entered the art scene in late 1970s. Her work mainly encompasses performance and photography, as well as installation and video. Her artistic origins go back to the Zagreb-based artist group Grupa Šestorice Autora (Group of Six Artists). Vlasta Delmar's work, distinguished by corporality and eroticism, directness and sincerity, provocation and confrontation, realism and vitality, has been displayed in a number of solo and group exhibitions.

Project Description: The performance which she brings to AKTO 6 deals with the historic personality of Erszebet Bathory, also known as the first female vampire. Throughout the author's vision, she is a strong artistic unit, color, emotion, esthetic, desire and sensation, and a suggestion even. She is a poetry about the difficulties of an insecure person that seeks salvation only in the external beauty of white and smooth skin.

Artist: Igor Josifov

Country: Macedonia

Project Title: Un-tight-en

Project Description: Un-tight-en is a performance installation where the relationship between the artist and the viewer is explored. This performance explores the possibility of the visual representation of the "doing nothing" situation and the juxtaposition between the body and the mind projected as an sculptural image on display for the viewer.

Bio: Igor Josifov was born in Kavadarci in 1986, but is currently commuting between San Francisco and New York City. Igor Josifov held his first group exhibition in 2000, in the International Museum of Art in Norway and his first solo exhibition titled "Art – In search of the personal Me" in San Francisco. He took part in Marina Abramovic's exhibition "The artist is present" at MoMA, New York City.

Artist: Zoran Popovski

Country: Macedonia

Project Title: Portrait of an artist as a cultural worker

Project Description: This year, as part of AKTO 6 official program, Zoran Poposki will materialize his performance called "Portrait of an artist as a cultural worker". Designed to be a performative tryptich (Thesis, Sweet film, Working class hero) dedicated to changes in the nature of non-materialistic artistic work as a paradigm in a post-fordistic economy. At the same time this projects represents a sum of the author's few year long artistic practice, focused almost exclusively on the public spaces as a place for presentation and discursive action.

Bio: Zoran Poposki is a transdisciplinary artist and a theoretician, with over 50 international exhibitions in his CV in USA, France, Germany, Austria, Italy, Turkey, Puerto Rico, Cuba, etc. His name signs the book of theoretical essays about art in the new media, "Spaces of power". He explores topics related to the liminality, identity and the public spaces.

Artist: Viktorija Ilioska

Country: Macedonia

Project Title: I am always watching you

Project Description: ’I am always watching you !’’ is a performance about the feeling of being constantly observed. How do you feel when you are under surveillance? The performers put you in an uncomfortable situation. It depends on you how much you allow this to affect you.

Bio: Viktorija Ilioska is a young Macedonian dancer and performer. She was born in Prilep and she lives and works in Skopje and Prilep. She has been Nomad Dance Academy student in 2010 ,where she created her first author project “I am always watching you!“. In 2010 she enrolled at the Faculty for ballet pedagogy in Skopje, Macedonia at the department for contemporary dance. She was selected at the Academy to present herself with this performance in New York in 2011.

Artist: Nemanja Cvhijanovic

Country: Croatia

Project Title: Applause!

Project Description: The Applause! project is a web streaming and a document of a fictitious manifestation (demonstration) staged in a form of a film set – with extras paid to manifest (or protest) at a square. Banners display various actual slogans that condemn neo-liberal capitalist society, which conquers the planet through imperialisms and incessant war, bringing poverty and hunger upon a major part of exploited population. By questioning a transitional society the Applause! project is attempting to touch anomalies of social relations, civil rights and duties, using a method of direct communication with citizens through a media of action (manifestation) and indirectly, through a network of websites with the event's web streaming, and finally with presentation of a document (video work) on a big screen. A project's essential component is actually a context of this "show" – placing the action at a main city square. Many European countries haven't had a single rather substantial manifestation directed against dominant politics of wild neoliberal capitalism. Disappearance or lack of ideology of resistance to the globalisation of multinational companies empire has given birth to a climate of lethargic passivity in a major population part. Demonstration's context and content are real, yet the demonstrators (actually selected from the most endangered social segments) have been paid to play "a role" of their own social duty. Situational absurdity of such a "show" is interpretation of the state of political paralysis of global society in relation to a dictatorship of capital economy. Diversification and compartmentalization of battle (resistance) fronts and multitude of movements (movement of the movements) point at difficulty of focusing on the enemy (empire) that uses a method of delusion (marketing) by stratifying the attack onto everything that still looks like or is social. contemporary and historic styles.

Bio: Nemanja Cvijanovic, born 1972 in Rijeka, graduated from the Accademia di Belle Arti of Venice, Italy and later postgraduate courses at Facolta di Arte e Design in Venice. He resides and works in Rijeka and Venice. In his work the artist establishes the connections with the events of the recent past (Antifascist struggle, revolutionary movements in the Third World). He brings the viewer in an intriguing relationship with memory, the changes in systems of values, propaganda, politics, consumerism and mass media. Nemanja Cvijanovic's work conceptually explores socialist histories and constantly reconsiders the relationship between economics and politics sometimes to the extent of being censored. Past works include 'Pago la luce (Satisfied Light)', 2005, a large marble tomb stone of Josip Broz Tito which also acts as a radiator and 'Here the future begins now', 2004 a series of aluminium trays with symbols of modern life such AKTO6 as a BMW car cut-out of them. Displayed at the Erste Bank in Rijeka, Croatia, 'Here the future begins now' raised questions about loans offered to Croatian residents to help them meet their expectations of capitalist lifestyles. The work was removed after two days by the bank because it was apparently contributing to loss of clients.

The artist definitely declares that communication is his sole weapon and that it is by no means the art for the art's sake. His intention is to preserve the censored or the forgotten past by means of the aesthetics of the.

Artist: Ivan Moudov

Country: Bulgaria

Project Title: Priority

Project Description: "Priority" is an orgaized event when a compact group of seven cars paralyzed the traffic as it stood in the way of the vehicles coming from the side streets and thus lines were formed in all directions and over a distance of many kilometers. In addition to the spatial compositions with unsuspecting players Ivan Moudov manipulated the time. In the rush hour when each lost second causes a dramatic feeling of loss the artist created a continual series that seems to suggest that the particular second is irrelevant in the mainstream of global time. The picture of hundreds of vehicles that the artist’s willpower “arrested” is a composition with global implications. He violated the rules by using the very same rules that were formulated to prevent chaos.

Bio: Born 1975 in Sofia, Bulgaria Ivan Moudov is one of the most interesting young artists currently practising in Bulgaria. Born in Sofia in 1975, Moudov only completed his training at the National Academy of Arts in 2002 but has become one of the most notable artists of his generation, persistently introducing new topics and ideas to contemporary Bulgarian art.

In 2007 He rapresents Bulgaria at the Venice Biennale, he also exhibits at 2004 Cetinja Biennale and 2005 Moscow biennale.

Working mainly in installation, video work and photography, his interests lie in the idea of an art involving and invading into much more powerful and overwhelming social and cultural structures and practices – such as television, advertising, technological means of communication or even road regulations. In his video works, he explores questions of sound, narrative (lack of) and editing, and is interested in simple images and the way they can be manipulated by the means of a very basic and low-tech editing technique.

Artist: Handsome Furs

Country: Canada

Website: http://handsomefurs.com

Info: Handsome Furs are not a message band and they are not political, but Handsome Furs are a message band and they are political. Handsome Furs are a juxtaposition of cold, metronomic, electronic beats, courtesy of Alexei Perry, with the jagged, dissonant and fragile, broken or breaking, guitars of her husband Dan Boeckner (guitars and vocals in Wolf Parade).

Their music portrays what it means to be a human being at the bottom of the 21st century. It underlines the confusion you feel as your best friends are conveyed to you via a series of ones and zeros passing through lines and cables and microwaves; the same confusion felt witnessing the pure, wholesome thrill of a band of musicians pouring their hearts out on stage, through someone’s cell phone as pixelated streaming video; the profound and bitter frustration of your long-distance relationship with the world up against a burning, alcohol-soaked sunrise as you admit some things you never thought you would; your constant feelings of inadequacy intertwined with the omnipotence modern technology grants us all. You are there, yet somehow you never are. As we all are and are not.

You are left with a rhythmic and empowering programmed beat interrupted by the warm, reverberating fuzz tone of vibrating strings on wood hit hard enough to shatter skyscrapers. Over it all, a perfectly imperfect voice roars images of landscapes, maps of forgotten continents ripe with history, and you are left feeling as human and alive and wide-eyed as you should be every single morning.

Handsome Furs have published three albums under the cult name of the Sub Pop label: Plague Park (2007), Face Control (2009) and Sound Capital (2011).

Artist: Marko Milosavljevic

Country: Serbia

Website: http://www.myspace.com/markomilosavljevic

Info: Marko Milosavljevic (Serbia) had his first serious DJ experience at the age of sixteen and after acing it, he was invited to perform at an event where he met Marko Nastic. Nastic was and still is a big influence and a close friend, associate and great support to Milosavljevic, along with Dejan Milicevic.

Marko's fanatic dedication to music and the perfect amount of braveness are what distinguish him from other DJs. He is constantly experimenting with different forms of music.

He was resident DJ in every club in Belgrade that matters, performed all over the country- as a headliner, as a co-star with other established Serbian DJs and with almost every relevant foreign guest. Audiences applauded him at the EXIT Festival on the Dance Arena many years in a row, including EXIT 2011, where he closed the festival's program together with Marko Nastic and Dejan Milicevic. He played side to side with his idols at the Dis-Patch Festival, performed at many other great events such as Summer Gathering, Ovo je Moj Grad, Beerfest, Lake Summer Festival and more. He contributed the opening of the Youth Olympic Games in Belgrade Arena in 2007 and made a special performance with the National Orchestra. Since 2006, Marko Milosavljevic successfully performs outside Serbian borders and has become one of the most relevant Serbian and Balkan DJ names.

Space Explorers is one of the many projects that Marko Nastic and Marko Milosavljevic did together and published several releases under two Dutch labels in 2006. Milosavljevic later focused his work on home labels.

He is managing label Recon Warriors and two sub labels Recon Light and Traffica. Works at Studio Bordel along with Marko Nastic and Dejan Milicevic and they also have a radio show on Friday night together, on B92 radio station.

Artist: TB Traceri

Country: Macedonia

Website: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Tb-Traceri/110708182281945

Info: The band called TB Traceri has been the most honest and the most exciting rock product from Macedonia for years now. They exist as a band for over ten years. Their debut album ("Klati i trkalaj"/"Swing and roll") was published in 2001. Publishing of their next album "Kupi me"/"Buy me" has enabled them to win the hearts of all simple, positive, insiring and humor-filled rock enthusiasts. Also, their latest album titled "Kinki vo nervozna djungla"/"Kinky in a nervous jungle" should be released soon.

Artist: XAXAXA

Country: Macedonia

Website: http://junkcola.blogspot.com/

Info: XAXAXA hails from Skopje and features all three male members of Bernays Propaganda. Their debut album “Tango Revolucioner”/"Tango Revolutionary" comprised of ten fast, melodic, gut rocking tracks in the best manner of Hüsker Dü, Dag Nasty and Rites of Spring – an awesome retro flashback to the eighties, but nevertheless sounding very fresh, and carrying a similar message. Sharp lyrics are sung in Macedonian, however, the sincerity in expression that pervades in the songs, brings them closer to the listeners, no matter where they come from.

Close your eyes, immerse yourself in their sound and let XAXAXA guide you. That way you will surely understand very clear what they have to tell you. And the fabulous music which backs it 'll up can only help you out with this!

Artist: Parketi

Country: Macedonia

Website: http://www.myspace.com/parketi

Info: Just a few months before announcing the independence of Macedonia at the city square in Skopje, a band called Parketi was created in a basement in Bitola. Within their 20 years of existence, they've published the albums "Griza na sovesta"/"Guilty conscience", "No tinkation", "Gazirana harmonija"/"Aerated harmonia", "Tajnata na imeto"/"The secret in the name" and "Mamo ne mu kazuvaj na tato"/"Mum don't tell dad". Rock 'n roll as a way of life is their main feature. They are punk rockers with unique charm and distinguishable performances that succeeded to popularize avant-garde culture like none other. Parketi are the rock 'n roll pride of Bitola and are at the top of the Macedonian alternative scene since their beginnings.

Artist: Goran Tech

Country: Macedonia

Website http://www.myspace.com/gorantech

Info: The passion for house, techno and progressive house took a big part in constructing the life story of Goran, while attending the best parties in the country at the age of only 17 influenced his music. In the present, he is recognizable by playing at almost every club and festival in Macedonia. So far, he’s played with almost every DJ in Macedonia and the Balkans, as well as with a respect-worthy list of foreign DJ names, such as Paco Osuna, Jon Silva, Manuel Tur, Rui Da Silva, Add2Basket, Sandy Rivera, David Morales, Chris Lake, Alexander Robotnick, Kiko and many, many more... Goran is one of the most talented young DJs and producers. Audiences can always find fresh and new sounds at his tech-house, techno and electro performances. He is stepping up the stage with a great entrance.

Artist: K. Petrovsky

Country: Macedonia

Website: http://www.myspace.com/djpetroboy

Info: Kristijan Petrovski, also known as K.Petrovsky, was born in Bitola. His first professional contact with music happened at 15 years of age, while visiting numerous music events in his home town. The beginnings of K.Petrovsky were as a resident DJ in some smaller clubs in Bitola. Later on, he got into the second DJ Contest at "FX" café-bar, organized by "Fresh Union” promo & booking agency form Bitola, when he became a part of it after winning the second place. He is a young, talented DJ and his carrier still hasn’t drawn out the best of him just yet. Stay tuned.

Artist: Kanal103 DJs

Country: Macedonia

Website: http://kanal103.com.mk/

Info: Kanal 103 / Channel 103 radio went on air on May 1, 1991. Situated in Macedonian Radio and Television's building, but beyond the borders of state regulations and concessions, Kanal 103 grew into a cultural movement of a public media with a concept to promote musical values, progressive art and free thinking.

Artist: Millko

Country: Macedonia

Website: http://www.myspace.com/millkoband

Info: Millko was born in the autumn of 2006 in a dark and very filthy subterranean premise in a Skopje suburb. This band is a product of a joint idea created out of imagination and the need for musical expression of individual hidden, intimate emotions. Two thirds of the band are actually separated parts of the tissue named Nicotine, which continued their musical path within Millko - a logical and legitimate inheritance of Nicotine. Millko is their temporary shelter, way of living and way of facing reality. Asked about their musical expression, members of Millko say: "Can one define something which represents a sublimate of emotions, life experiences, influences, events transformed into a format named music. Can one express in words let alone define something that is so beautiful?"

In March 2008 they released their first EP "Don't let them win" for PMG Recordings. The EP consists of 5 songs recorded and produced by Dimitar Petrov. "Millko" has been performing in several clubs in Skopje, at the "Positive Vibrations 2" Festival in MKC Skopje and "PMG Recordings Festival" in Skopje.

Artist: Molokai

Country: Macedonia

Website: N/A

Info: Molokai is a surf-punk band from Bitola which evolved under the influences of the Polish Malca, Slacktone, Man or astro man and Snow bros. At the moment the band is working on its first EP that is scheduled to be published during August this year.

Artist: Saso Recyd

Country: Macedonia

Website: http://soundcloud.com/sasorecyd

Info: With traces of melancholy and mystique, Saso Recyd succeeded to develop his modern and peculiar sound into his own distinguishable imprint, which came along with phenomenal success.

His dynamic, urban and special vibe-creating sound bridges generation gaps through his compelling, mind-blowing and highly imaginative, yet beautifully simple mixing.

We mustn’t forget to mention the following editions: Julija/4 Notes and the Flash (by Green Velvet) edit, as well as Your Music is Bad – the track that appeared at the “Don’t Be Left Out” compilation under his alias – Recyd. Many of his edits can only be heard in his own sets and are available to a selected and limited number of DJs.

His remix for Ambivalent – Jackson found its place at the prestigious label Plus8 recently and his latest EP, Pilot will be published in September for Rawthentic Music.

The invigorating freshness and the mighty sophistication his sound bears make Saso Recyd one of the few genuine entertainers who stirs up the dance floor with relative ease through the elecro, minimal and tech house waves.

Artist: Sound Pollution

Country: Macedonia

Website: http://www.myspace.com/soundpollutionandcoupleoflesbians

Info: As they walked out of the apartment buildings, they sensed that they're only able to move through one-way streets and that could only end up in dead ends. They figured out that loudness outside was only produced by cars and construction machinery. They didn't like it. Not at all. They decided to live the party in their minds throughout their distorted assemblies. The gang realized that they don't have to put up with the noisy, stinky, so-called city, but to create their own musically modified knowing about the world. The screaming kittens living inside the guitar amps were their angelic choirs. The sliding bass and demolishing drums were making tectonic movements that were shaping up the perfect planet. Everyone knows now who is allowed to make noise.

Artist: Stojche Cvetanovski

Country: Macedonia

Website: http://www.myspace.com/djdanny_l

Info: Stojche Cvetanovski is one of the greatest ambassadors of Macedonian electronic music in the world. He succeeded to establish himself as one of the most fresh-sounding DJ names on the underground dance stage through his releases under the labels like Dogmatik, Liebe*Detail, Gluckskind Schallplatten and Argumento. His tracks take a regular part in DJ sets by some world famous DJs. Many record labels recognized his talent and started to closely follow the actions of Stojche, the DJ and producer that has so much more to say. The great success of his releases provided him the opportunity to perform at a variety of festivals and clubs all over Europe. London, Dortmund, Zurich, Ibiza, Thessaloniki, Belgrade and Novi Sad at EXIT Festival are only a small part of the places where audiences had a chance to confirm the rumors about his non compromising style. His sets are a fusion of many different forms of underground house and techno.